After we had completed the interviews we knew we needed to get started on editing immediately. We had been warned that it would take a while and we were definitely worried about the looming deadline. We began editing on Wednesday without even having finished filming. Since the introduction had nothing to do with the ending we knew we could start without having any issues. I'm not going to cover the editing by days like I did for the production blog, rather I will be doing it by the sections of the documentary.
Intro
The introduction was the hardest part for us to accomplish. We had so many ideas but in reality, no way to execute them. We aren't the most advanced editors and we knew that going in, but we still dreamed big. The real issue was finding a way to introduce both of our subjects in the beginning without confusing the audience. I had an idea to put them on a split screen and then swipe from side to side as they told their stories which me and Maria both agreed on so I started working on that. I spent a good hour figuring it out and then adding to the documentary only to realize it made the documentary unwatchable. We reverted back to the original plan of showing them separately since it got the point across. While it may not be the most visually interesting it got the job done.
This was our attempt at having them both on the same screen:
And this is what we ended up going with:
First section of story
Once again we needed to find a way to show the connection between the stories while getting them across smoothly. We decided to intertwine them while trying our best to show their progression side by side. After testing out different layouts we realized that allowing them to tell a small part of their story and then switching over was going to work best since it would be able to stick before they were introduced to another story. This took us forever. We spent two days spending videos back and forth and contemplating if we should just restart altogether. Writing about it now it seems like a smooth process where trial and error helped us find a quick solution, but at some points, we wanted to throw a person out of the documentary. Along with that, their stories were quite long, and trying to cut them down without cutting out important parts was quite complex.
Our other issue to tackle was b-roll. Since this part was taking place in the past we had basically all pictures which could become boring quickly, so I pulled out Canva to create a more interesting way to incorporate the photos.
While it still didn't make it the most interesting part of the documentary it helped us add the pictures we really wanted the audience to see. I felt it was important to include these things as they helped give the subjects depth. Since it was all in the past it was kind of complicated to make it seem real without videos from the past, so animated the photos helped with that.
Redirection
This was arguably the most important part of the documentary. We needed to display their change in career paths without confusing the audience. Since Joey and Fernanda had different reasons for the change we needed to tell that part of the story and then shift into their new careers. While I do think we could have enhanced this section with better editing we did what we could and used a fade to black edit to signal the end. Another thing we thought would help signal change was music. The issue was we didn't want it to sound corny or boring. Its purpose was to add to the story not distract or interrupt so I did what any real researcher would do. I scrolled through YouTube and listened to the preview section of each YouTube video until I found a sound I liked. We found one that worked well and we added it at the portion which signals the beginning of the end.
New Life
After the fade to black, we shifted to a direct question. We felt using a direct question was necessary as it helped get the story's shift across. For Joey, he switched to his police uniform since that was his new career path and Fernanda introduced her Husband whom she started her new career. We paired this with b-roll that included family because despite the redirection they ended up in a place they were content with. It felt necessary as it furthered the point that life doesn't end because one door closed. As a finishing touch on the section, we added happy music to the background. It helps signal the good vibes we are trying to give off towards the end. ,
Overall after all the challenges of editing and figuring out how to make it flow well. I think it came out as close to how we imagined it. I hope you enjoy it.
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